


Nowhere

by Esselle



Series: Rumrunners [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Developing Friendships, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Sailing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 10:39:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12034188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esselle/pseuds/Esselle
Summary: 'Kageyama tells Shouyou to point in any direction, as long as it's facing the waves. Where he points, Kageyama sails—out onto the ocean, until the town is no longer visible, until it's only the water and sky, blue in all directions.'--Shouyou is curious to see what fearsome pirate captains do on their port days off.





	Nowhere

**Author's Note:**

> This is set early on in the timeline of the Rumrunners series, before anything romantic has happened between Hinata and Kageyama. In this fic, they're still getting to know one another.

"UWAAAAAH! Is that it?!"

Shouyou flings himself at the railing of the ship, throwing the whole top half of his body over it in his excitement. In the distance, he can see it—the seaside port town of Torono, bustling under the noise of gull calls and the cresting crash of the waves.

Kageyama passes by and grabs the back of his shirt, dragging him away from the rail, and potentially avoiding a man overboard situation.

"Why are you so excited?" he asks blandly. "Your town was the same."

"This is a _new_ one," Shouyou says.

Kageyama stops so abruptly that Shouyou bumps into him. Before he can complain, Kageyama spins around, his captain's coat billowing around him. Shouyou straightens up and pays attention.

"Before we go ashore, I'm setting a few ground rules. Follow them, or spend all of next week scrubbing the deck spotless. Aye?"

"Yes, captain!" Shouyou shouted.

"First: don't draw any attention to yourself."

Shouyou crosses his arms. "How would I do that?"

 _"You,_ " Kageyama says, "are orange and louder than an entire _armada_ of parrots. You're also easily recognizable to anyone _looking for you._ "

Shouyou huffs. "Well… fine."

"Next order of business," Kageyama continues. "You stay near the crew at all times. No running off. No _exploring."_

"But—" Kageyama's eyes flash, and Shouyou backtracks quickly. "Stay with the crew. Got it!"

"I'm serious as a dead man, Shouyou," Kageyama tells him. "There's a reason we make port in Torono. This isn't a place for folk such as yourself."

With that proclamation, he strides off, leaving Shouyou to gape at his retreating figure.

He has very little time to sulk over the perceived slight. Soon, the _Invincible_ is sailing into port, and Shouyou can't help but be awestruck by the sights surrounding the ship; gnarled, old boats, fishermen and smugglers, a wretched hive nestled within a paradise of white sandy shores and crystal blue waters.

The anchor drops and the gangplank lowers. Shouyou is swept out with the tide of bodies as the crew jostles and flows its way off the ship. And then, it's land underfoot, solid and unmoving, which only seems to make it harder to stand, somehow. Shouyou's legs wobble strangely.

Someone smacks him on the back nearly hard enough to send him sprawling, and a loud voice laughs.

"Sea legs givin' you trouble, Shouyou?"

Towering over him, shadows cast and blotting out the sun, are the terrible trio—Koganegawa, Haiba, and Goshiki, ready to drink the day away, no doubt. Off they go, sauntering down the street, already singing bawdy shanties.

The three of them warmed up to him faster than anyone else on the ship—Shouyou could tag along, but he doesn't fancy a day cooped up inside a stale tavern.

He glances around him. He's got to stay with the crew, but most of them have dispersed.

He spots Kunimi and Kindaichi headed the way of the shops, and that might be more up his alley, seeing the whole town and the people in it; if only the two of them weren't so chummy with each other and uncertain about him.

He turns the other way and just spies Tsukishima, slipping off alone and unnoticed down a dark alleyway, adjusting his emerald tinted glasses with a surreptitious glance before he disappears. Whatever the first mate of the  _Invincible_ is up to, it's definitely shady, and Shouyou has no intention of trying to force his way into Tsukishima's business when the man already clearly yearns to throw him to the sharks at the first available opportunity. Shouyou is dim, but not that dim.

Unfortunately, if he wants to follow the captain's orders, he's running out of time. He'll have no one to stick near at this rate. And then he spots the captain himself, last off the ship.

Kageyama has changed out of his grand seafarer's clothing, into a simple white shirt, faded blue pants rolled to his knee over a worn pair of boots. He looks like one of the simple fisherman like that, not the fearsome captain Shouyou has come to know him as (though he would never tell Kageyama this to his face). Moreover, he seems relaxed, almost; at peace.

And so, instead of following any of the crew to wherever they may frequent ashore, curiosity wins out. Shouyou follows Kageyama.

Kageyama does not leave the docks to head into town. Instead, he turns and walks along them, hands in his pockets, the sea breeze ruffling his hair that has been freed, for once, from his three pointed hat. Shouyou creeps along behind him at a slightly slower pace—darts around grizzled old men with pipes in their mouths, hides once or twice behind a crate or a large barrel, wonders where it is Kageyama is heading.

They reach the edge of the dock where the activity level is lower, and the ship bustle quieter. Shouyou edges closer as Kageyama finally stops, alongside a small, two masted brig ship. There's a man on deck, with a sunburned nose and fair hair secured by a loose headband. He spots Kageyama and pulls the pipe out of his mouth to shout down at him, though Shouyou can't hear what is said.  

Shouyou squints as Kageyama exchanges words with (Shouyou can only assume) the brig's captain. Then to his surprise, there is a changing of the guard; Kageyama walks up the gangway and the man down it, clapping Kageyama familiarly on the shoulder as they pass each other. Shouyou hides again, around the corner of a building, until the man has walked by, singing an old sailor's tune in a voice rough hewn by smoke and salt air as he goes.

Shouyou chances a glance at the ship now, to see that Kageyama has disappeared onto the deck. Without stopping to think, Shouyou leaves his hiding place, to make his way up the gangway and onto the ship.

Kageyama doesn't notice him—he's too busy with storing the mooring ropes and pulling up anchor, and for awhile, Shouyou watches him as he works, trying to pick up some kind of knowledge in the observation. But Kageyama moves too swiftly for Shouyou to pick anything up aside from a vague sense of dizziness, and so he finally decides to announce himself.

"What are you doing?"

Kageyama gives a shout and whips around, hand automatically flying to his waist for his sword—but he's not wearing it, and for a moment, his fingers grasp uselessly at air as he gapes at Shouyou. In the next breath, however, he realizes who it is, and rolls his eyes towards the heavens.

"Where the hell did you come from?" he demands.

"Did I scare you, captain?" Shouyou forgoes a proper reply and simply beams at him.

 _"What_ is it," Kageyama tirades, "with you and _sneaking onto boats?"_

"I just happened to see you!" Shouyou says defensively. Kageyama tilts his head and frowns, and too late, Shouyou realizes the implication of his words. "This time! The first time I was just—it wasn't because of _you…_ "

This is not, in point of fact, entirely true. But, Shouyou has no intention of letting Kageyama find that out.

Kageyama either lets it slide or hasn't caught on in the first place (the more likely scenario). Instead he continues to glare. "I gave you _two_ conditions—only two, and—"

"And I followed them!" Shouyou counts them off on his fingers. "One—I haven't drawn attention to myself! You didn't even notice me. And two, I'm with the crew's _captain._  What could be better?"

"I can think of many things," Kageyama says.

"Mean," Shouyou tells him. "I just wanted to see where you were going."

"Nowhere in particular," Kageyama replies.

"Then where are you taking this ship?" Shouyou asks curiously.

"Like I said," Kageyama says stubbornly, "nowhere in particular."

He doesn't seem like he's going to be any more forthcoming, and Shouyou deflates. He's not sure why he followed Kageyama after all—what had made it seem like a good idea at the time, like Kageyama may be pleased to see him.

"Okay," Shouyou says. "Well, maybe I'll have a…" He wrinkles his nose. "I'll drink some… _grog…_ with Lev and—"

"You might as well come along, now."

Shouyou freezes, mouth open in surprise. Kageyama looks frustrated, almost, that the words have come out of his mouth at all; Shouyou can hardly believe that they did.

"To where?" he asks.

Kageyama shakes his head. "Nowhere, looks like."

Shouyou's eyes and mouth open ever wider, before he's nodding, and then jumping straight into the air in his excitement. "Yeah! Let's go, Kageyama, let's go nowhere!"

Kageyama tells Shouyou to point in any direction, as long as it's facing the waves. Where he points, Kageyama sails—out onto the ocean, until the town is no longer visible, until it's only the water and sky, blue in all directions.

Shouyou isn't sure what makes him finally stop, but the sun is well overhead by that time, blinding where it reflects off the waves. They haven't spoken much on the voyage so far. Kageyama has looked too focused for that, sailing this ship all by himself. Shouyou wishes he could be of more use, but he still doesn't know the first thing about ships or sailing; so he keeps watching.

He notices that though Kageyama looks focused, it's not the kind of focus that comes from stressful concentration or overwrought thinking. Instead, Kageyama seems on the verge of something like happiness. His eyes are alert and alight, and his lips are pressed firmly together, like if he isn't careful, he might _smile._ Shouyou would like to coax it out of him at some point, perhaps; but for now, considering Kageyama let him stay, he's content to be a silent passenger, exploring the boundaries of the ship or else leaning against the forward railing to watch the water rush by. And eventually, they slow.

It's not quite nowhere, but it feels as though it could be close to it, on a map. Kageyama heaves the vessel to, and they stall amidst the waves. There's nothing out there but them.

"Now what?" Shouyou asks, turning just in time to catch Kageyama stripping off his shirt and boots. "Wh-what are you doing?"

"What's it look like?" Kageyama asks, as he strides towards Shouyou purposefully, a length of rope in hand. But before Shouyou can shout anything about impropriety, he strides straight past, grabbing hold of the forestay rope to haul himself up onto the ship's rail. He throws the rope overboard, first, and Shouyou realizes he has it tied securely around the mast. It reaches all the way to the water.

Without a pause, Kageyama executes a clean dive, kicking off the rail to cut straight down into the deep blue water below with barely a splash. Shouyou leans over the railing to gape at him.

"You're leaving me up here?" he yells, when Kageyama surfaces.

"Water's fine if you want to swim," Kageyama calls back. He looks less like a pirate captain, currently, and more like the creatures fishermen talk of in their stories—beautiful, half human creatures that make their homes beneath the waves and lure sailors to their doom with the sound of their voice.

Shouyou does want to swim. However, coincidentally, if he were to follow the sound of Kageyama's voice it truly would spell his doom.

"I can't," he says.

"What?" Kageyama asks. "Why not?"

"I mean, I actually can't," Shouyou confesses. "I don't know how."

Kageyama tosses his wet hair out of his face, the whole of which is squinted in confusion. Shouyou can make out the exact moment this new piece of information registers with him, with all its surrounding consequences.

"At _all?"_ Kageyama shouts. "You can't swim at all?!"

Shouyou shakes his head, glad that he is on deck and out of head-grab reach.

"You're a _fucking_ idiot!" Kageyama is now bellowing. "What kind of bilge swilling, gin-soaked deck rag tries to be a _pirate_ without knowing how to fucking _swim?!"_

 _"ME,_ I guess!" Shouyou shouts back.

"This is why I didn't want you to come!" Kageyama says furiously. "This was supposed to be—relaxing, now I have to be worried about you falling overboard and drowning—"

He falls silent, and Shouyou peers down at him curiously. "You're worried about me?"

"I'm swimming now," Kageyama says in response, before disappearing back below the waves.

The sun beating down on the deck of the ship gets hot before too long, hot enough that Shouyou eventually has to steal Kageyama's shirt to use as shelter, holding it over his head as he lolls against the railing and watches Kageyama swim. The shirt smells like the sea and salty sweat, and mutes the bright rays of the sun, which shine through the white linen to turn it pale gold. It makes Shouyou sleepy, the warmth and the rocking of the boat.

Kageyama swims for a long time, until the sun is no longer as hot and the vibrant blue of the sky has started to mellow. Eventually, Shouyou is roused from the standing doze he's fallen into as the captain scales the rope he threw into the water earlier, climbing swiftly up the side of the ship.

"Ready to head back?" Kageyama asks. If he thinks it's odd, Shouyou blinking sleepily at him from under the shirt he's re-purposed as some kind of veil, he doesn't remark upon it.

Shouyou finds it odd himself, that Kageyama is asking him whether or not he's ready. After all, no part of this venture was his idea. But then he looks out at the water, at the way the now late-afternoon sun tints it gold, too, like it had with the shirt, and reconsiders.

"Maybe we can stay out a little longer," he mumbles, and Kageyama nods like he truly doesn't mind.

He doesn't ask for his shirt back, and Shouyou takes the opportunity to really watch him, while he's occupied seemingly searching for something. He's got a broad back, paler than his arms thanks to the coat he's always wearing. His hair sweeps his shoulders, but he's already in the process of pulling it back into a short tail at the nape of his neck, as he usually does. Shouyou watches him wind the leather band round and round with long, deft fingers before he knots it.

Kageyama's fingers are scarred. Shouyou can't see the marks from this far away, but he knows because he's seen them up close. He has wondered which were accidents and which were inflicted purposefully; there are two horizontal slashes in the middle of Kageyama's palms that are too perfectly even to be anything but deliberate. He wonders how Kageyama got those, but he hasn't asked.

Now for the first time he sees more; the other scars on Kageyama's body, the numerous reminders that he has a dangerous life and a wretched one. For all that he has earned himself a ship, and a title, and a reputation, his life is not a valued one as it would be for other men of society who possessed those things. Shouyou can see the old signs of beatings, burnings, blood drawn. And he wonders how it came to be that such a dreadful man decided, in the end, to let him stay.

 _"Ha,_ " Kageyama says, pulling something loose from a tall coil of rope near the aft of the ship. It's a bottle, filled with dark amber liquid. He unstops it, absently noting, "Keishin will kill me when he realizes I went looking for this. We better move fast once we get back to shore, because it's the first thing he'll check."

"Why'd you come out here?" Shouyou asks.

Kageyama blinks at him as he takes a long swig from the bottle. He wipes his mouth and holds it out to Shouyou, shrugging when Shouyou shakes his head. "I like it out here."

"But you're out here all the time," Shouyou points out. "You don't want to do something different?"

Kageyama frowns. "No. Why would I?"

Shouyou tilts his head, thinking about this, as Kageyama takes another deep drink from the bottle. Shouyou leans back and the shirt slides from his hair, so the sun hits his face again.

"It is different, being out here by myself," Kageyama says. "I've only got to worry about me."

"Oh…" Shouyou says. He recalls Kageyama's earlier ire, upon learning he couldn't swim. "Sorry. I'm…"

"You're a nuisance," Kageyama says, waving a hand.

Shouyou cringes. "I'm—"

"Annoying."

"Well—"

"A burden on myself and my crew."

 _"Okay,"_ Shouyou says loudly. Kageyama stares blankly at him, and truthfully, Shouyou can't argue with any of what he's said. "Why'd you even bring me aboard, then?"

Kageyama huffs irritably. He doesn't answer at first, standing up, dusting off his pants. When he starts to ready the ship to sail again, Shouyou wonders if Kageyama will respond at all, if he has any reason for bringing Shouyou on board aside from pity.

"The sea called to you, didn't it?" Kageyama asks him suddenly.

"Excuse me?" Shouyou asks, not sure he heard correctly.

"It called, and you listened," Kageyama says, matter-of-fact. "I know. The same thing happened to me."

Shouyou has nothing to say to these declarations; he doesn't know whether Kageyama is right, because from his recollection, Shouyou simply recalls the lure—of freedom, excitement, adventure. He saw all that in Kageyama, and wanted the same for himself.

And then, he laughs.

"Yes," Shouyou says. "I guess it did."

"Next time," Kageyama says, "next time, you're going to learn to swim."

He turns the vessel back toward town, though Shouyou knows they won't stay there for long. A life on land is not the life for them.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I have given Tobio "[Will Turner hair](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/4d/ff/f9/4dfff92a345fd681fba5de33277eab5a.jpg)".
> 
> Also hey hey hey! If you don't follow me on Tumblr or have missed my updates, keep an eye out for a new chapter fic from me this weekend! Especially if you enjoy the Hunger series~
> 
> [I'm [@esselley](http://esselley.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr, [@Esselle_hq](https://twitter.com/Esselle_hq) on Twitter]


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